Daily Archives: July 30, 2019

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it will reverse an Obama-era decision to block a controversial Alaska mine project. “After today’s action EPA will focus on the permit review process for the Pebble Mine project” Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick said in a statement. While the EPA is withdrawing the 2014 determination, which it wrote “was issued preemptively and is now outdated,” the withdrawal does not constitute an approval of the permit application or a determination in the permitting process. “Instead, it allows EPA to continue working with the Corps to review the current permit application and engage in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process,” the statement reads. >click to read< 19:19

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“[Fishing is] like trying to drive around in a car with no brakes,” Daniel Farnham says. “on a road made out of treadmills and having obstacles thrown in your way continuously.”Farnham says offshore wind farms will make it worse. That’s because fishermen argue the turbines aren’t spaced far enough apart to allow vessels to safely navigate through them. The plan is to install 84 massive turbines in a grid-like pattern about three-quarters to a nautical mile apart. Farnham says mobile gear vessels like his, that have massive nets trawling behind them, will make it even harder to navigate. >click to read< 18:04

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In the small western Belgian fishing village of Oostduinkerke, fishermen use horses, rather than boats, to go shrimp fishing — one of the very few places in the world still using a technique dating back to the 15th century. The method makes use of the horse’s strength to pull a fishing net through the shallow waters of Oostduinkerke, a natural habitat to grey shrimp (Crangon crangon), just before and after low tide. “We see that the population of shrimps is going down every year. We catch a lot of plastic these days. 12 photo’s, >click to read< 16:53

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While media outlets scream “hottest ever” for the world in June and July (it’s summer) and opportunistic climate crusaders use those headlines to push the idea of a “climate crisis” the reality is for USA is that so far most of 2019 has been below normal, temperature-wise. Little known data from the state of the art U.S. Climate Reference Network (which never seems to make it into NOAA’s monthly “state of the climate” reports) show that for the past nine months, six of them were below normal, shown in bold below. The data, taken directly from NOAA’s national climate data page, shows not only that much of 2019 was below normal, but that the US Temperature average is actually cooler,,, >click to read< 15:19

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The fishermen’s breakthrough with the National Marine Fisheries Service mirrors their breakthrough last month with the Edgartown Conservation Commission, which voted 5-1 on June 27 to reject a permit for Vineyard Wind to lay cable on the ocean floor about a mile east of Martha’s Vineyard’s eastern shore. That meeting was not audiotaped or videotaped, according to a town official, but reports say that fishermen raised concerns that electromagnetic radiation from the cable may disrupt the ability of fish to communicate with each other, and therefore decrease the number of fish. Fishermen were also concerned the laying of the cable could itself damage the fishery. >click to read<12:08

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It’s been routine for fishermen setting sail on the Gulf of Mexico over the past 15 years to stop beside the unmistakable blue boat — always parked in the same spot about a mile east of Pensacola Pass — for a live bait transaction. Until his last day on earth, you could buzz Tony Barfield on VHF radio channel 11 or pull right up to the beloved bait salesman’s trademark spot on the pass to pick up your cigar minnows or threadfins for the day. Barfield died July 19 of natural causes at the age of 61. >click to read< 11:41

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At the fifth annual ceremony, Island visitors and residents stood beside members of the Buddhist center as Karma Trinlay Rinpoche blessed the lobsters with sacred water and herbs. Then folks took turns picking up the lobsters and placing them gently into the harbor, where the powerful current will carry them far away from human dangers such as lobster pots and pollution. The lobsters were purchased from the Menemsha Fish Market and cooled before the ceremony in order to make the lobsters lethargic and prevent fingers from getting pinched. >click to read< 10:10

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On Monday, State Representative Dylan Fernandes (D- Falmouth) and State Senator Cyr (D-Truro) hosted an event at the State House with the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the New England Aquarium, supporting North Atlantic right whale conservation efforts. The event included the presentation of a resolution, sponsored by Rep. Fernandes, that was passed through the House in support of the Federal SAVE Right Whales Act.,,, The event also included a special guest: Calvin, the New England Aquarium’s 42ft inflatable right whale. >click to read< 08:56 H.R.1568 text – >click to read<

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here